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Strategic uncertainty from emerging threats and opportunities in the business environment can significantly impact managers’ abilities to successfully implement their business strategy. A key strategic control and governance mechanism designed to enable managers to respond to strategic uncertainty is a strategic performance measurement system, such as the balanced scorecard (BSC). This study aims to investigate whether strategic uncertainty is associated with the diversity and types of performance measures in a BSC, which are used by managers for various strategic control and governance purposes.

A survey of senior-level managers within strategic business units of Australian Stock Exchange listed organizations was conducted.

This study finds that the extent to which managers face strategic uncertainty is positively associated with performance measurement diversity. Further, managers faced with greater strategic uncertainty use performance measures relatively more to evaluate subordinates’ performance, communicate business strategy, track performance against targets, identify problem areas and guide future directions. Outcome measures are used to a greater extent for all five purposes, whereas leading measures are used more only for future-oriented purposes.

Strategic performance measurement systems, such as the BSC, can and are being used to provide managers with the information and control mechanisms necessary to meet the challenges associated with strategic uncertainty.

This study provides the first evidence on the relations between strategic uncertainty, performance measurement diversity and managers’ use of performance measures for five key purposes. Understanding these relations is important, as managers need to formulate appropriate responses to strategic uncertainty, to protect and create value by exploiting emerging opportunities and managing associated threats.

This study examines the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. Meaningful work is an important driver of individual performance of managers, and employees and can be enabled by sufficient use of management controls. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

Based on bibliometric analyses and a structured literature review of academic research studies from the organizational, management and accounting literature, the authors develop a conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work.

First, the authors propose that the use of formal management controls in a system (i.e. the levers of the control framework) is more powerful than using unrelated formal controls only. Second, they suggest that the interaction of a formal control system together with informal controls working as a control package can even stretch the perception of meaningful work. Third, they argue that the intensity of the control use matters to enhance the perception of meaningful work (inverted u-shaped relationship).

This study presents the first conceptual model of the relationship between the use of management controls and the perception of meaningful work. It provides valuable implications for practice and future research in the field of performance management.

This study aims to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a new group intervention, using an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) approach, developed for dementia caregivers. Preliminary data regarding the effectiveness of the intervention was also collected.

A quasi-experimental design is used involving pre- and post-intervention data from four different intervention sites, along with three-month follow-up data. Data on attendance, attrition and qualitative feedback was also collected as an indication of acceptability. A total of 23 people currently caring for a family member with dementia attended the ACT group intervention for five sessions. Detailed evaluation forms were collected at the end of each group, along with four self-report questionnaires: Zarit Burden Interview, Positive Aspects of Caregiving Scale, Dementia Management Strategies Scale and Experiential Avoidance in Caregiving Questionnaire.

Findings indicate that the group intervention was feasible and acceptable to caregivers, with subjective change reported in understanding of behavioural changes in the care-recipient, ability to handle negative emotions and valued living. These changes were not reflected in the outcome measures, with only one change reaching statistical significance (reduction in “intolerance of negative thoughts and emotions towards the relative”). Suggestions are made regarding possible alternative outcome measures for future studies to capture participants’ experience more fully, along with potential adaptations and future directions for the intervention.

This study provides preliminary evidence of the acceptability and feasibility of a group therapeutic intervention based on ACT for informal caregivers of dementia.

The purpose of this study is to qualitatively explore and describe the social environment of CrossFit®.

A total of 6 focus groups (n = 48) and 16 interviews were held with CrossFit® participants, coaches and owners. Each focus group or interview was facilitated by trained members of the research team. After data collection was complete, four trained researchers analyzed transcriptions using an open coding method to derive themes from responses, followed by inter-rater reliability checks to ensure consistency in data analysis.

Five themes emerged including: support (the social capital community members received from others through CrossFit®, including encouragement, coaching and accountability); culture (describes how CrossFit® as a community embraces a variety of skill levels and members experience a sense of camaraderie, acceptance and shared goals); social aspect (ways CrossFit® incorporates and extends community through a welcoming environment and fostering relationships building); competition (competing with others and oneself at CrossFit® is key to motivation and success at the gym); and barriers to community (ways CrossFit® can at times be intimidating).

Although exploratory, this study suggests the importance of CrossFit®’s social environment for a participant’s experience. Future research could determine how relationships within CrossFit® relate to health outcomes.

This research is original and important to the field of mental health as it explores how CrossFit® can be leveraged as a strategy to promote social inclusion. CrossFit® provides an environment that promotes healthy habits such as community involvement and exercise.

Digital libraries are not only an assortment of information assets yet have turned into a digital community for correspondence, searching and electronic learning. Also, economically the investment in terms of money, time, energy and manpower associated with the development of effective digital library (DL) systems demands high utilization of these resources. This study aims to explore the factors that affect the utilization of digital libraries and may lead to users’ satisfaction and finally high exposure to information systems like digital libraries. However, these factors may work differently in different cultures. Considering this fact, DeLone and McLean’s IS success model (ISSM) is tested and expanded in a local academic context.

Following the quantitative research design, a total of 355 responses were collected through a questionnaire-based survey. Research scholars of the University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan were the reviewed population of this study. A two-stage stratified random sampling method was used to choose the sample. Structural equation modelling is used to find out the nature and extent of the relationship among studied variables.

The findings confirm that service quality is the strong predictor of DL system use, whereas overall users’ satisfaction mediates the relationship between the predictors (content and service quality) and the outcome variable (use).

This work done is the first main endeavour to use the “Information System Success” theories to intervene and mediate the effect of content, IQ, system quality and service quality on the use of DL in the local context.

Since the introduction of balanced scorecard by Kaplan and Norton in 1992, it garnered considerable research and practice attention across disciplines. Using bibliometric analysis, this study examines trends in balanced scorecard research in last 20 years and identifies future areas of research.

The Web of Science database was used to extract research papers from the 2003 to 2023 period with “Balanced Scorecard” as topic. The final sample consisted of 445 articles. Trends and patterns were analyzed using bibliometric analysis through research profiling and thematic analysis.

The findings reveal that BSC, spanning across disciplines, including business and operations, has enriched the theory and practice of BSC research. Analytical and survey methods were more prevalent than primary studies. Scholars from the USA and the UK have made noteworthy contributions to balanced scorecard research. Emerging themes include integrating human resources, sustainability, subjectivity in performance evaluation and non-financial performance indicators in BSC for better strategic decision-making.

The study would inspire researchers to generate new research questions and hypotheses and help in identifying gaps in the current knowledge base and areas where further investigation is needed. Managers would gain useful insights into performance management by studying the BSC research evolution to find a fit for modern-day industry needs.

The authors’ contribution fills the void by providing useful account of extent research over last 20 years using bibliometric analysis and motivate future research directions.

This paper uses a laboratory experiment to examine the effect of accountability pressure as a monitoring control tool to mitigate subordinates' propensity to create budgetary slack. The results suggest that budgetary slack is (lowest) highest when accountability pressure is (present) absent under a private information situation. The results further reveal that accountability pressure is positively associated with subordinates' perceived levels of honesty, which in turn is negatively associated with budgetary slack creation. The findings of this paper have important theoretical and practical implications for budgetary control systems design.

Digital Libraries are complex, and this complexity is a motive to study user success on the behalf of appropriate user success models. These models comprise the factors which play a part between people, technology and organizations. The purpose of this study was to specify and examine an integrated digital library user success (IDLUS) model within the context of digital library settings, Higher Education Commission National Digital Library (HEC-NDL) of Pakistan, by adopting and reusing the existing digital library and Web success models.

Stratified random sampling technique was used to choose the sample from the University of the Punjab, a highly ranked public sector university in Pakistan. Participants were asked to complete an adapted survey questionnaire. A total of 355 completed and usable questionnaires were obtained. Data analyses through confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling produced the results that have supported the proposed IDLUS model. The proposed IDLUS model was tested and supported through model fit statistics in the academic computing environment of the HEC-NDL of Pakistan.

Findings revealed that relationships between the latent variables hypothesized in the model were confirmed.

The study has both theoretical and practical ramifications for academicians and information system designers and developers.

The IDLUS model is recommended first time in the history of librarianship in Pakistan as an overall user success model in the digital library information system computing environment. That made numerous recommendations for future research in the field of information management, particularly for digital library development at national and international levels.

This paper aims to describe a new method for constructing the FintTech Index that measures the development of FinTech in the conventional and Islamic banking sectors in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It also tests the effect of this new proxy on the performance of conventional and Islamic banks in MENA countries.

Using data from Islamic and conventional banks in the MENA region between 2010 and 2020, the authors rely on Text Mining Technology with the help of AntConc, principal component and factor analysis. The study also uses the simultaneous equation model to test the interdependent relationship between FinTech and bank performance.

The study argues that the proposed measure effectively represents the FinTech industry in the MENA financial markets. The results provide micro evidence on the application of FinTech innovation in Islamic and conventional banks to improve their performance, profitability, stability and efficiency. Furthermore, the findings can provide insights for practitioners and researchers interested in implementing FinTech collaboration to enhance the performance of Islamic and conventional banks in the MENA region.

Investors can leverage this FinTech Index in portfolio investments, trading strategy and hedging in MENA countries. In addition, policymakers can benefit from the challenges outlined in this work to support the development and incubation of FinTech in conventional and Islamic banks. Thus, they can better recognize the new generation of banking services with which they need to deal and collaborate.

This paper makes a methodological contribution to the literature on FinTech search patterns by combining factor analysis with corpus processing software. This is the most comprehensive global FinTech index. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the simultaneous relationship between the FinTech index and the performance of Islamic and conventional banks.